Joel Greenblatt defined Return on Capital differently in his book The Little Book That Still Beats the Market (Little Books. Big Profits). He defines Return on Capital as EBIT divided by the total of net fixed assets and net working capital. J&J Snack Foods Corp's annualized return on capital (Joel Greenblatt) for the quarter that ended in Dec. 2014 was 27.15%.

GuruFocus calculates net working capital as: (Accounts Receivable + Inventory + Other Current Assets) - (Accounts Payable + Deferred Revenue + Other Current Liabilities). We're trying to account for OPERATING assets and liabilities (part of daily business) when calculating working capital. Cash and marketable securities are considered NON-OPERATING assets and are not included in calculation. We will also back out all interest bearing debt, short term debt and the portion of long term debt that is due in the current period from the current liabilities. This debt will be considered when computing cost of capital and it would be inappropriate to count it twice.

Note: The Operating Income data used here is four times the quarterly (Dec. 2014) operating income data.

* All numbers are in millions except for per share data and ratio. All numbers are in their own currency.

Explanation

The way Joel Greenblatt defines Return on Capital is a more accurate measure of how efficiently the company generates returns onthe capital actually invested in the business. EBIT is used instead of net income because the tax and interest payment may be affected by factors other than the core business operation. Intangible assets are not included in the calculation because they dont need to be replaced.

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